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Every site that I've looked for info on customizing a LAN connected to FiOS has offered variations of this:

  1. configure the ActionTec as a WAN bridge.
  2. buy a different router and customize that.
  3. connect them together.

Why don't people hack directly on the ActionTec? It's running OpenRG (linux) with BusyBox and supports local telnet. I find it hard to believe that no one has been able to get around the security controls.

Note: technically, DD-WRT has made a ROM to reflash the router, but it loses its FiOS capabilities, which completely defeats the purpose for me.

Update: attempting to put non-ASCII characters in the SSID results in:

Input Error
Service Set Identifier must consist of 1 to 32 characters
and must not contain any special character.

Update 2: Information about MI424WR command structures

You can read and write configuration values using conf print and conf set commands.

However, even when I try to use TELNET BINARY mode on my client, the router appears to be running in 7-bit ASCII mode, which rejects the high-bit characters. So now I need to figure out if it is possible to connect in 8-bit mode, or to assign arbitrary byte strings using some ASCII encoding.

Update 3: Getting closer

Due to space limitations (and presumably a desire to lock down the router) the selection of installed software is very limited. In particular, it has no file editors or find/replace utilities, so making changes directly on the router is difficult.

The only file loading option is TFTP. By running a TFTP server on your PC and connecting to it from the router shell, you can download files, edit them, and upload the changes into place.

Update 4:

Instead of wpa-supplicant.conf (as suggested in the answer), the MI424-WR uses Hostapd, with conf files stored in /etc/hostapd/

However, /etc/hostapd/wpa-ath0.conf is overwritten upon reboot; the settings are stored somewhere else (probably a non-text encoded binary) and merely loaded into hostapd.

The admin web service loads static web pages from /home/httpd/html, but most of the pages are dynamic, and they do not appear anywhere in the file listing.

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2 Answers 2

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Knowing that some routers do not support non-ascii SSID names, I remark that Linux software usually supports UTF-8 rather than Unicode. To be using Unicode, I assume therefore that your computer has Windows.

You should be able to hack into the router, but speak to your ISP about getting the firmware upgraded before hacking.

You should be able to use telnet to login into the router as a Linux console. Without knowing your exact router model, here are still a couple of pointers which might work :

Once you are logged-in to the router's Linux console, you can change the SSID as described in the article How to Configure Wireless on Any Linux Desktop, section "Command Line".

To type non-ascii characters, most Linux distributions use Ctrl + Shift + u followed by the UTF-8 code in hex. You only need to hold down Ctrl and Shift while typing the code.

You can find out the hex encoding of your characters in this table :
UTF-8 encoding table and Unicode characters.

Before hacking, I suggest that you take backups of the router, as well as studying its mechanism for Factory Reset, just in case.

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  • Unfortunately, the command line instructions at Linux.com do not cover how to change the SSID, only how to change the key.
    – Foo Bar
    Dec 30, 2015 at 21:31
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Short answer - you shouldn't. Just put in to WAN bridge mode, get tweak-able router like Ubiquiti or and any sporting DD-WRT and enjoy network tweaking. Think of your ActionTec device as "cable modem".

Edit: As to why - perhaps this page can provide some wisdom: http://jmikola.net/blog/fios-actiontec/ (Security concerns about Verizon's ability to remotely access local router settings, including admin password)

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  • The poster asked for another solution.
    – harrymc
    May 15, 2015 at 17:43
  • This has been stated as gospel many times by many people. If it's so, you have to explain why.
    – Foo Bar
    May 16, 2015 at 2:34
  • harry, sometime asking for solution to a problem which doesn't have great solution, it is ok to provide an alternative way, which will deliver in end same result without f-ing up vendor equipment May 16, 2015 at 3:34
  • The hack here isn't enormous and can normally be undone by Factory Reset.
    – harrymc
    May 16, 2015 at 9:03
  • @BSA, I completely disagree. Fear of Verizon is MORE reason why people should hack the router, with the goal of closing port 4567.
    – Foo Bar
    Sep 15, 2015 at 15:57

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